


Watch life move past (and death creep closer)

by Mari_Gold



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Gen, Grief/Mourning, He's now called William, How Do I Tag, I couldn't find Mr. Dare's real name, Not Canon Compliant - The Trials of Apollo, One Shot, POV Thalia Grace, Sad, because ToA is killing me so I'll ignore it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-10 23:20:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18417980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mari_Gold/pseuds/Mari_Gold
Summary: Immortality is a curse. Death is inevitable. Thalia Grace knows this better than anyone.





	Watch life move past (and death creep closer)

Thalia is there when her best friend dies. She’s there when the stray dracaenae rushes towards Annabeth, when the demon’s blade cuts through her abdomen. She’s there when Percy cries out and rushes to Annabeth’s side, catching her as she falls, tears sliding down his face. She’s there when Percy bends over his wife’s dead body, when the earth trembles with the force of his power, cracking open. She’s there to hear Annabeth’s last words, a whispered, “Stay strong, Pinecone. Don’t-don’t let it get you.” She’s there when the light leaves Annabeth’s eyes, the once-stormy grey fading to mist.

Percy unties Annabeth’s camp necklace and presses it into Thalia’s hands. “Keep it,” he says when she tries to give it back. “You’re the one who’ll need it most.”

**~*~**

Percy and Nico go next. It’s ten years after Annabeth’s death, and Thalia has been soldiering through it, immersing herself in her duties as the Lieutenant of Artemis. She thinks it’s working, that the pain is slowly numbing. Then she gets an Iris Message from Chiron telling her that Percy and Nico died protecting the camp from a Chimera attack.

He hands her their camp necklaces during the funeral. Thalia winds them around her arm, next to where Annabeth’s lies.

There’s a storm boiling under her skin. A voice in her head whispers, _it’s starting._ Thalia ignores it and clings to the last people left with her, guarding them with fierce intensity.

(And if sometimes at night, the sky thunders and flashes, if it cries and heaves and sobs until the earth is soaked through, well, nobody needs to know.)

~*~

Leo goes out with a bang. A literal one. There’s a werewolf pack descending on them, and with a shove and a yelled out “Run!”, Leo lights the forest on fire. Thalia and her hunters are close enough to feel the heat from the explosion.

When they go back and sift through the ashes, Thalia finds a charred leather necklace. Silently, she loops it around her wrist. This time, Leo’s not coming back.

The weight of the dead only grows. Thalia wonders when that weight will crush her.

~*~

Reyna and Frank die in their sleep, but not peacefully. Being praetor earns them respect, but also many enemies. When she goes with Jason to examine the place of their death, Thalia is stricken. Their throats are slit, blood crusting the sheets, mouths gaping and eyes wide. By the state of their bodies, Thalia guesses they choked on their own blood. She was never very close with either of them, but she feels this loss just as deeply as the others.

Instead of necklaces, the Romans have tattoos, so Thalia threads two charms onto a leather cord: a sword and a torch, and two crossed spears.

When the killer is found a month later, Thalia takes deep pleasure in watching his execution.

~*~

Rachel is ambushed on a hot summer’s night. Nobody knows where she is. When ransom notes start appearing, wanting one million dollars in exchange for a powerful businessman’s daughter, Thalia sees red. When William Dare refuses to pay the ransom or try to find Rachel, Thalia feels white-hot anger. It takes most of the Hunters of Artemis to hold her back. Instead, Thalia leads a small tracking party to find her friend.

In the end, it’s too late and Rachel’s body is found half-buried in a ditch. Thalia adds a flame charm to her cord.

**~*~**

Piper dies in the hospital, surrounded by beeping machines and a shaking husband. Cancer took over her lungs two years ago, and the infestation only grew. Thalia watches Jason cradle Piper in his arms and shake with tears. A turmoil of emotions rolls through her, and outside, twin storms brood. Thalia is reminded of a similar scene many years ago, a blonde woman held by her dark-haired husband as she slips away, the battle still raging around them. Now, though, it’s a hospital and the husband hands Thalia a necklace instead of the wife.

Barely half a year later, Hazel dies the same way, except her husband was gone far before she was.

Threading Pluto’s symbol onto her charm cord onto her arm feels like a reminder of death. _More to come,_ that voice says. _There’s still more to come._

**~*~**

Jason is old and frail when his body fails him, giving out while he’s walking on the street. Thalia is beside him when he collapses, beside him in the ambulance, beside him when he dies like his wife did long ago, surrounded by machines and the sterile white hospital walls.

There’s a burning right behind her eyes. Wetness makes its way down her cheek. Her breath rattles in and out of her chest, a jagged rhythm in sync with her stuttering heart. Thalia hasn’t cried in so long, but the death of her brother releases the flood of emotion inside her. There’s a storm outside, lightning and thunder and rain pelting against the windows, and Thalia allows herself to _feel_. Memories of all their deaths, all the lives she’s watched dim and flicker and fade away fill her head, her body racking with sobs she didn’t know she was capable of. Thalia runs a hand over all the necklaces and charms around her arm, each shape achingly familiar.

_Too many,_ she thinks. _There are far too many._

**~*~**

Thalia thought it would get easier when everyone she knew died. It doesn’t. Even when her old family is dead, her new family, the Hunters of Artemis, will always be around. And it’s hard, hard to watch hopeful new recruits get slain by monsters, hard to watch old friends take swords for her. Soon, Thalia gets a new cord for the charms of all the Hunters she’s lost.

At night, Thalia traces Zoë’s constellation with her fingers. There’s a new respect in her for the former Lieutenant. Zoë was over two thousand years old when she died, and she had to bear the burdens of all her fallen comrades. Thalia’s not even a tenth of that age. With the way death runs rampant, she wonders if she’ll ever even come close to it.

**~*~**

Thalia’s own death comes in the form of a poisoned knife to the stomach. She can see a young Hunter rushing towards her, medical supplies in hand, but Thalia knows it’s too late. The poison eats through her system, weakening her body. Looking up at Keerah, who's barely twenty years old, Thalia feels a sense of déjà vu. With effort, Thalia holds up her arm, the one bound with the necklaces and charms from a lifetime ago.

“Annabeth. Percy. Nico. Leo. Frank. Reyna. Rachel. Piper. Hazel. Jason.” Thalia recites the names, old and cracked and dusty from years of avoidance. She looks up to Keerah, presses the Lieutenant circlet into her hand, and whispers, “Take it. You’re the one who needs it the most.”

Keerah’s eyes are lined with silver, and Thalia knows that this is the girl’s first real experience with death. Black creeps up over Thalia’s vision, and she vaguely resisters a coin being pushed under her tongue. Annabeth. Percy. Nico. Leo. Frank. Reyna. Rachel. Piper. Hazel. Jason. Thalia will finally get to see them again. They’ll finally be reunited.

Thalia Grace dies with a smile on her lips and memories bound on her arm, a bright silvery soul making its way to Elysium.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked that. This was my first time posting for an actual fandom, so feedback is appreciated.


End file.
